Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Allie Mickelson | ... | ||
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Kelci Stephenson | ... | |
Philip Seymour Hoffman | ... | ||
Craig Archibald | ... | ||
Bronwen Coleman | ... | ||
Kate Shindle | ... | ||
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David Wilson Barnes | ... | |
Michael J. Burg | ... |
Williams
(as Michael J. Berg)
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Catherine Keener | ... | ||
Kwesi Ameyaw | ... | ||
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Andrew Farago | ... |
Car Rental Agent
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Ken Krotowich | ... |
Courthouse Guard
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Chris Cooper | ... | ||
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R.D. Reid | ... | |
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Rob McLaughlin | ... |
Harold Nye
(as Robert McLaughlin)
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Famed writer Truman Capote, southern born and bred but now part of the New York City social circle, is growing weary of his current assignment of writing autobiographical type pieces for the New Yorker. After reading a newspaper article about the just occurred November 14, 1959 cold blooded murders of the Clutter family in their rural Kansas home, Truman feels compelled to write about that event as his next article. So he and his personal assistant Nelle Harper Lee, also a southern born New Yorker and an aspiring writer of her own, head to Kansas to research the story first-hand. Truman hopes to use his celebrity status to gain access to whomever he needs, such as to Laura Kinney, a friend of the Clutter daughter she who discovered the bodies, and to Alvin Dewey, the lead police investigator and also a Clutter family friend. If his celebrity doesn't work, Truman will grease the wheels by whatever means necessary. When the police eventually charge suspects, two young men named Dick ... Written by Huggo
Brilliant portrayals are chilling. Philip Seymour Hoffman's invocation of the essence of Truman Capote is mesmerizing. I suspect that most of the readers on websites such as these may not have stored memories of Capote in the 60's. An unlikely media darling, I vividly recall his flaunting gay affectations and cosmopolitan barbs. Hoffman's detailed and incisive performance implores, "And the Oscar goes to........"
Beyond his performance is a riveting and eerie story directed with flawless craft and impressive restraint. It is a film that left me sitting and discussing its nuances and its depth, until the theater's lights flickered to oust me. The film surrounds the time when Capote wrote "In Cold Blood," a book nearly everyone read in the late 60's, its title seeming obvious. This latest movie inserts Capote into the original crimes that inspired "In Cold Blood" and challenges us to revisit that title.